Podcasts about code for america

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, about their book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America (MIT Press, 2024) Politics Recoded examines the history and culture of Code for America, an organization that, as one of its leaders put it, aimed “to promote ‘civic hacking,' and to bring 21st century technology to government.” The book describes how the organization has changed over time from a “tech-forward” vision rooted in techno-libertarianism to an organization that provides something like digital consulting services to governments. The pair also talk about Aure's writing and editing company, the Indelible Voice, and what it's like helping scholars refine their vision and voice in academic writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, about their book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America (MIT Press, 2024) Politics Recoded examines the history and culture of Code for America, an organization that, as one of its leaders put it, aimed “to promote ‘civic hacking,' and to bring 21st century technology to government.” The book describes how the organization has changed over time from a “tech-forward” vision rooted in techno-libertarianism to an organization that provides something like digital consulting services to governments. The pair also talk about Aure's writing and editing company, the Indelible Voice, and what it's like helping scholars refine their vision and voice in academic writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, about their book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America (MIT Press, 2024) Politics Recoded examines the history and culture of Code for America, an organization that, as one of its leaders put it, aimed “to promote ‘civic hacking,' and to bring 21st century technology to government.” The book describes how the organization has changed over time from a “tech-forward” vision rooted in techno-libertarianism to an organization that provides something like digital consulting services to governments. The pair also talk about Aure's writing and editing company, the Indelible Voice, and what it's like helping scholars refine their vision and voice in academic writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, about their book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America (MIT Press, 2024) Politics Recoded examines the history and culture of Code for America, an organization that, as one of its leaders put it, aimed “to promote ‘civic hacking,' and to bring 21st century technology to government.” The book describes how the organization has changed over time from a “tech-forward” vision rooted in techno-libertarianism to an organization that provides something like digital consulting services to governments. The pair also talk about Aure's writing and editing company, the Indelible Voice, and what it's like helping scholars refine their vision and voice in academic writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, about their book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America (MIT Press, 2024) Politics Recoded examines the history and culture of Code for America, an organization that, as one of its leaders put it, aimed “to promote ‘civic hacking,' and to bring 21st century technology to government.” The book describes how the organization has changed over time from a “tech-forward” vision rooted in techno-libertarianism to an organization that provides something like digital consulting services to governments. The pair also talk about Aure's writing and editing company, the Indelible Voice, and what it's like helping scholars refine their vision and voice in academic writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, about their book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America (MIT Press, 2024) Politics Recoded examines the history and culture of Code for America, an organization that, as one of its leaders put it, aimed “to promote ‘civic hacking,' and to bring 21st century technology to government.” The book describes how the organization has changed over time from a “tech-forward” vision rooted in techno-libertarianism to an organization that provides something like digital consulting services to governments. The pair also talk about Aure's writing and editing company, the Indelible Voice, and what it's like helping scholars refine their vision and voice in academic writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, about their book, Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America (MIT Press, 2024) Politics Recoded examines the history and culture of Code for America, an organization that, as one of its leaders put it, aimed “to promote ‘civic hacking,' and to bring 21st century technology to government.” The book describes how the organization has changed over time from a “tech-forward” vision rooted in techno-libertarianism to an organization that provides something like digital consulting services to governments. The pair also talk about Aure's writing and editing company, the Indelible Voice, and what it's like helping scholars refine their vision and voice in academic writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/technology

An old saying among military people is that amateurs talk about battle strategies and professionals about logistics. It gets to the heart of a bigger idea. Policy gets endlessly debated and no time more than after a change in administrations. But what about the government's capacity to do things properly? My next guest has called for a capacity agenda in 2025. The founder and CEO of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka, joins me now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

An old saying among military people is that amateurs talk about battle strategies and professionals about logistics. It gets to the heart of a bigger idea. Policy gets endlessly debated and no time more than after a change in administrations. But what about the government's capacity to do things properly? My next guest has called for a capacity agenda in 2025. The founder and CEO of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka, joins me now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why are the Chinese words for the USA directly translated as “beautiful country?” Find out in this intriguing episode as founder and executive director of Code For America Jennifer Pahlka shares her vision for a government in the USA that works for everyone and harnesses the amazing new technologies in our world. ✨ BIG NEWS ✨ Our brand new Talk Chineasy App, is now live on the App Store! Free to download and perfect for building your speaking confidence from Day 1. portaly.cc/chineasy Visit our website for more info about the app.

Today's Chinese word is “chicken.” ShaoLan quizzes Jennifer Pahlka about what it takes to rear her own free-range chickens and also teaches the bonus word for eggs, an extremely useful word to know if you're in China as so many dishes are cooked with eggs! ✨ BIG NEWS ✨ Our brand new Talk Chineasy App, is now live on the App Store! Free to download and perfect for building your speaking confidence from Day 1. portaly.cc/chineasy Visit our website for more info about the app.

Founder and executive director of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka joins this podcast to learn the word for “code” or “coding” in Chinese. Her amazing initiative aims to harness the incredible advances in technology in the 21st Century and enable them to make the government work for a fairer society. ✨ BIG NEWS ✨ Our brand new Talk Chineasy App, is now live on the App Store! Free to download and perfect for building your speaking confidence from Day 1. portaly.cc/chineasy Visit our website for more info about the app.

Send us a Text Message.Jeff and Scott chat with Gabriel Zucker about Code for America's efforts to enable better access to free tax filing, both at the federal level, and, facilitating state tax filing as the IRS roles out its direct filing program.Get CPE for listening to Tax Chats! Free CPE courses are available approximately one week after episodes are published. Visit https://earmarkcpe.com/ to download the free app. Go to the Tax Chats channel, register for the course, take a short quiz, and earn your CPE certificate.

According to a Pew Research poll, over 40% of adults in the United States are considered to be digitally illiterate, and while America's crumbling transportation infrastructure often makes headlines, its digital infrastructure is equally as out of date. Organizations from the IRS, to the healthcare system are still relying on technology from the 80s or earlier. This is what today's guest is out to remedy. Jennifer Pahlka is the former US Deputy Chief Technology Officer under the Obama Administration and helped found the US Digital Service. She was also the Executive Director of the International Games Developers Association, and founded the non-profit Code for America, which aims to improve the digital systems within government. Jennifer's most recent book “Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the DIgital Age and How We can Do Better” pulls from her experience in the tech sector and government and the importance of government bodies understanding how technology affects the people they're meant to serve. In an age where mobile apps, A.I., and metaverses are all the rage, the conversation we had with Jennifer is an important one that all leaders need to consider.  This is another episode you're not going to want to miss, so with that…let's bring it in!

 This episode originally aired on April 5th, 2023.As tax season ramps up in earnest, and given the good news about the IRS's Direct File Pilot Program, we thought now would be a good time to revisit an interview we conducted last year with Code For America's Gabriel Zucker, the Interim Program Director of Tax Policy and Partnerships.This interview focused on how the IRS could design a direct file system, what such a tool might look like, and Code for America's work in civic tech for taxes.Resources:GAO Free File ReportProPublica's Investigation into Private Tax Prep SoftwareCode for America's Direct File PrototypeCode for America's Research on Simple Tax FilingSubscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young CommunityCourtesy of Epidemic Sound

In this episode, we talk to Scott Johnston, CPO at Code for America about his journey as a Product Leader. This one is jam-packed with stories that will inspire you to be at your best. From working with Google, getting fired by Sergey Brin (and re-hired) and surviving cancer, it really has got it all. https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjohnston/ [00:03:23] Impact of product management on users. [00:06:32] Alleviating poverty and improving services. [00:09:46] Evolution of file storage. [00:15:26] Thinking 100 years ahead. [00:18:31] Leadership and firing at Google. [00:24:14] Managing Upwards [00:27:29] Building and cancelling product launch. [00:30:11] Managing bills and puppy mishap. [00:36:01] The importance of technology in education. [00:41:30] Impact of technology on education. [00:44:28] Surviving cancer and leadership insights. [00:49:35] Jobs defining personal identity.

The Volker Alliance, a premier good-government group, has added a prominent federal technologist to its board. She was the deputy U.S. chief technology officer and founded Code For America, a non-profit that helps government at all levels with digital challenges. For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Jennifer Pahlka. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Volker Alliance, a premier good-government group, has added a prominent federal technologist to its board. She was the deputy U.S. chief technology officer and founded Code For America, a non-profit that helps government at all levels with digital challenges. For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Jennifer Pahlka. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2022, Congress established Summer EBT, the first new permanent federal food assistance program in almost 50 years. The authorization of Summer EBT represents a historic investment in the nutrition and wellbeing of almost 30 million children who will qualify for the program. But states that piloted Summer EBT, or operated Pandemic EBT programs in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic know that getting these benefits into the hands of families will involve overcoming complex challenges related to data and technology. That's why Code for America and No Kid Hungry, a campaign of Share Our Strength joined forces to create the Summer EBT Playbook, a comprehensive free resource designed to help state agencies plan for and implement a human-centered Summer EBT program. Today we will talk with Eleanor Davis, director of Government Innovation on the Safety Net team at Code for America. In her role, she helps government agencies adopt best practices for human-centered digital benefit delivery.   Interview Summary Why is Summer EBT significant? Well, I think you gave us a good intro. Summer EBT is a brand-new benefit program and it's designed to reduce childhood hunger during the summer months by providing families with a monthly grocery benefit to feed their kids when they're not receiving meals at school. So, almost 30 million kids in the US receive free or reduced-price meals at school, but during the summer many of them struggle to access nutritious food because they're not receiving those meals at school. School is out of session. Summer EBT is designed to give families $120 per child in the summer to help them buy groceries and it really has the potential to dramatically reduce childhood hunger. It's a tremendous moment because Summer EBT is the first new permanent federal food assistance program in almost 50 years. For those of us in government or in the food access space, this is really I would say, a once in a generation opportunity to shape the implementation of the program to make sure it really meets the needs of families and children. So, why did Code for America and Share Our Strength develop the Summer EBT Playbook? What was the challenge? Code for America is a 501 C3 nonprofit organization. We partner with government at all levels to make the delivery of public services more equitable, more effective, and more accessible using technology and data. And we've spent the last decade helping states deliver safety net benefit programs in more human-centered ways. The Summer EBT program, as we mentioned, has immense potential, but we also know that states are going to encounter many challenges in implementing this program in 2024 and beyond. I think standing up a brand-new benefits program is a huge undertaking generally, but Summer EBT will present some really specific challenges to states and we learned a lot about this back in 2020. So, at the start of the pandemic, Congress authorized an emergency response program called Pandemic EBT, that was very similar to Summer EBT in many ways. It was the same idea, really sort of providing families with a grocery benefit while schools are closed because of COVID-19. And so, in 2020 and 2021, Code for America worked directly with about a dozen states to help them deliver Pandemic EBT benefits. And through that process we saw very up close what made that program so hard to implement. Delivery of the program really relies on effective data and technology systems. So, really being able to find the right data in state systems and use that data to deliver benefits. And a lot of these challenges will also be true for Summer EBT, right? It's a very similar delivery process. So, states really needed help planning for Summer EBT and really designing systems and processes that will help them operationalize this brand-new program so that it can really live up to the promise spelled out in the policy. So, that's why we partnered with the No Kid Hungry Campaign. We really wanted to develop a resource that would help states design effective and human centered Summer EBT programs. And our goal was really just to sort of help as many states as possible implement this program. This is really interesting, and I would like to understand a little bit more. What challenges did states face in implementing the pandemic EBT and how do you see that showing up in the Summer EBT? I mean is it just getting the right software or is it something else? There are so many really, it's less about the software and more about the data. So fundamentally, I think some of the biggest challenges that we walk through in the playbook certainly, but that we know states are going to struggle with is really around using data to determine who is eligible for Summer EBT. So maybe just taking a step back, there are sort of two pathways for confirming who's eligible for Summer EBT. The first is called streamline certification. Basically, this means that the state uses the data that it already must determine if a family is eligible for Summer EBT and then issues those benefits automatically. So, for example, if a child is already participating in a program that should make them eligible like SNAP or in some states Medicaid, they should automatically receive Summer EBT. And similarly, if a child is in the foster system or is in a Head Start program or if a child has applied for and is therefore receiving already free and reduced-price meals at school, those children should receive Summer EBT automatically. But children who can't be certified as eligible through any of those pathways will have to apply for the Summer EBT benefits. So that's sort of the other eligibility route. States must provide a way for families to directly apply if they can't certify them through streamline certification. So, the idea is that the majority of children who are eligible for the program should actually get benefits automatically through streamline certification. And that's really fantastic, right? We should always be looking for ways to reduce the administrative burden that low-income families face when they aim to gain access to programs they're entitled to. So theoretically, if a state already has enough information to say this family is eligible for Summer EBT, they should just send that money out automatically and without the family having to do anything. That's sort of the best-case scenario. On the state side though, this is actually really complicated to do. The data that states need to use to determine that eligibility is all over the place, right? It's in Head Start programs, it's in the foster care system, it's in a state's SNAP or Medicaid eligibility system and it's in the schools, and school data presents really specific challenges for states to be able to use. So, states therefore have to identify where is all this data? What systems is it in? What agencies have this data? They then must aggregate all that data in one place that's central and usable. They have to clean and de-duplicate and match all that data across those different data sources. And then of course they have to deal with any inaccuracies or gaps in the data. So, data collection, data aggregation, data management, these are really sort of the core challenges of implementing this program. How do you collect all of this information into one place and use it to deliver benefits to families? This is really one of the core challenges that we focus on in the playbook. It's really helpful to hear how you all are helping states think through this. And I would imagine that there are some differences across states. How in the playbook have you been able to best manage the uniqueness of these different states? It's really tricky. I think we always say if you've seen one state system, you've seen one state system, no two states really look the same. And I'm using state really as a shorthand, tribal nations can implement this program, territories, US territories can also implement this program. So, there really is no one standard way that states backend infrastructure looks. And even when it comes to implementing this program, Summer EBT, different state agencies are sort of taking the lead in different states on administering this program. So, I think we're doing our best to help understand what unique challenges states are facing while also recognizing that the sort of themes, the main things, the primary challenges are going to remain the same basically across a lot of states. And so, we are really sort of in the playbook offering best practices, recommendations that we know will be universally helpful no matter really what a backend state system looks like. Can you give us a little bit of the flavor of those best practices? Absolutely. So, I want to talk about a couple here because this program gets really weedy really fast. I think the first one that we really talk about is client support. As we've been discussing, this is a really complicated program to administer. It's also brand new, right? So, families are going to need support navigating this program. They're going to have questions; they're going to be confused. Even after multiple years of Pandemic EBT, many families were still confused about why they did or did not end up receiving benefits. So, who is eligible? Can I expect these benefits? How do I get them? These are all questions that families are going to have. So, states need to be prepared to provide really consistent and clear communication to families. And they also need to have really easily accessible pathways for families to reach out and ask questions when they have them. And we can already really anticipate what a lot of those questions are going to be. One of the biggest points of confusion for families is going to be, "Do I need to apply or not?" Right? We talked earlier about the two different pathways streamline certification or filling out an application. From the state perspective it's pretty clear, but as a family, how do I know if I can expect to receive these benefits automatically or if I need to apply? And the complicated policy language here, of course you know about streamline certification, families don't understand that, right? We have to sort of really communicate clearly with families. I think one example of this is families whose children attend community eligibility provision schools or CEP schools; these are schools that serve free meals to all of their students. They're usually schools that are in low-income areas and because a certain percentage of their students are categorically eligible for free meals because they participate in other programs like SNAP or TANF, they're able to just give free meals to all of their students. So, families at CEP schools have never had to apply for school meals, their kids just get them. But because these families haven't applied for free or reduced-price meals, they're actually going to have to apply for Summer EBT. You can see how from a family perspective, this starts to get really confusing from a messaging standpoint, right? We're telling families if your income was below this level, at any point in the previous school year, you're going to be eligible for Summer EBT. But if you haven't applied to free or reduced-price meals this year, you have to apply unless you already received SNAP or TANF, in which case don't apply, you'll get benefits automatically. So, the messaging starts to get really confusing. How states communicate with families about this program and how to access it really matters. So, in the playbook we have a lot of resources on best practices for community outreach, how to talk about this program, how to leverage many methods of communication, right? Like email, text, phone calls, to really let families know about this program and give them the information they need to navigate it. Wow, that's great. And it's interesting to hear you talk about this because early on I had the impression you were really worried about the data, but you're also really concerned about how people function in the system. So, I've heard you mention this idea of human-centered design and human-centered digital benefit delivery. Can you explain a little bit more about what that really means and why it's important? Human-centered design really just means creating things that really meet people's needs and that are really easy for people to use and access. And that's really important, right? Just like the example I was just sharing with this program. It's a complicated program and if the systems aren't designed in a way that makes it easy for families to access, easy for families to interact with, they're not going to see the benefit of the program ultimately, and the program isn't going to meet its goals, which is reducing childhood hunger. So, the principles of human-centered design are really about thinking through what do families need when it comes to interacting with this program and how do we design the program in such a way that gives them those things? I think a great example of this is the application, right? We have a lot of best practices in the playbook related to the application component of the program. I mentioned that while many families will receive benefits automatically, the regulations for Summer EBT do require that many families will have to apply. So, states have to design applications and there are a lot of considerations that need to go into creating an application in a human-centered way, right? It needs to be accessible, which means it needs to be available in a lot of different languages, which can be really tough. California has 19 threshold languages that people speak. So, we need to translate this into the languages that people speak. The questions need to be written in what we call plain language, which is just conversational, the way that people actually talk so that they're really easy to understand and they need to flow in a way that makes sense to someone filling out the application. And this really matters because if the questions are hard to understand or hard to answer, it's likely that more people will answer incorrectly or submit the wrong answer. Meaning that they might not get the benefit even if they are in fact eligible. And then we also talked a lot about the importance of mobile accessibility. And this is really critical because more and more low-income families are what's called smartphone dependent, which means they don't have internet in their homes, but they do have a smartphone. So, they rely on that smartphone to do things online like fill out applications. But a lot of government websites are not built to fit the smaller screen on a mobile phone. And that makes it really hard for people to do things like fill out online applications for benefit programs. So, it's really important to make sure that the online application is designed to work on a mobile phone because that's how we know most families will be accessing it. I think the application component demonstrates a lot of the sort of thoughtful design work that's going to be required to create a program that's truly accessible for the people that need it. I'm really appreciative of this. And as I heard you talk about this, especially with mobile devices and I was thinking about younger folks, but I also know that there are grandparents or older adults who will care for young children who may be eligible. What considerations do you make for older adults or people with disabilities that may make using certain devices difficult? That's a great question. We have done a fair amount of research on this and what we found is that the sort of principles of human-centered design we really need to design for everyone. And that means designing for accessibility or ability, right? Designing for multiple languages, designing for whatever device people have access to, designing for different levels of comfort with technology. I think we really believe in the sort of principle that if you design it for the person that's going to have the most trouble accessing the program, you make it easier for everybody, right? So, we really think about the highest need population and design for that population and then really believe that we sort of make it more accessible for all populations that need to access the program. This has been really helpful for me to consider how government can work for people by using human-centered design to really move the process of applying and attaining these assets or these benefits, easier for folks. And I'm really grateful to hear the work that you all are doing with Share Our Strength. I got to ask this last question. What are your hopes for Summer EBT in 2024 and even beyond? I love this question. I have so many, I spent a lot of time so far talking about how hard this program is going to be for states to implement and it will be, I don't want to downplay the significant effort that it's going to take for states to stand up this program and deliver benefits, especially in this first year. That said, in my experience, people who work in government are incredibly resilient and resourceful and they are incredibly creative problem solvers. Pandemic EBT was really hard to implement, and states were trying to figure out how to deliver that program in the first few months of a global pandemic where everything was shut down and there was sort of historic need for benefit programs. But by the time that program ended, every single state had delivered Pandemic EBT benefits to families. So Summer EBT, especially in these first few years of its implementation, will be challenging certainly, but it won't be impossible. States have really proved that they can do this, right? States are good at this. So, I guess my greatest hope is that states are able to address many of the challenges of implementation this year in order to put benefits in the hands of families and that more states opt in, in future years, right? So that eventually all families get to benefit from this program. Ultimately a policy is only as good as its implementation, right? We have to help states design programs that are effective for them to implement, but also that work for the families that they're serving so that the Summer EBT program can live up to the promise outlined in the policy. Bio Eleanor Davis is the Program Director for Government Innovation at Code for America. In her role, she enables government agencies to adopt best practices for human-centered digital benefit delivery. She joined Code for America from Futures Without Violence, a national public health and social justice nonprofit dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence. There she worked for 6 years on the Public Education Campaigns & Programs team, developing public-facing initiatives that support the ability of frontline providers and advocates to more effectively respond to and prevent violence and trauma. Eleanor is a graduate of the University of Chicago where she studied Sociology and Performance Studies, and received a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley. Outside of work you can often find her gardening in her backyard or singing in her family band.  

In this episode host Professor Stephen Goldsmith interviews Jennifer Pahlka, former Deputy Chief Technology Officer for President Obama and founder of Code for America. They discuss Jennifer's new book, "Recoding America," which focuses on how to approach big and small projects in the digital age, the challenges of government technology, and the need for a reevaluation of how we think about and invest in government. Pahlka shares insights on successful projects, the importance of collaboration between tech and policy experts, and the need to rethink bureaucratic processes to achieve better public outcomes.Music credit: Summer-Man by KetsaAbout Data-Smart City SolutionsData-Smart City Solutions, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, is working to catalyze the adoption of data projects on the local government level by serving as a central resource for cities interested in this emerging field. We highlight best practices, top innovators, and promising case studies while also connecting leading industry, academic, and government officials. Our research focus is the intersection of government and data, ranging from open data and predictive analytics to civic engagement technology. We seek to promote the combination of integrated, cross-agency data with community data to better discover and preemptively address civic problems. To learn more visit us online and follow us on Twitter. 

Recording Date: November 10th, 2023 Hosts: Tony Hansmann && Jesse Alford Guest Name: Alex Tran Alex Tran has spent time at Code For America, Pivotal, and touring around the US helping Climete Tech companies. He's got a new UX Consultancy focused on climate, wellness, insurance, and govtech clients. We had the type of really fun conversation I miss having with Designers! We talk about his pairing journey, design on a balanced team, and some of the principles he teaches his design students. Social media: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/alexandersitran/

Why are the Chinese words for the USA directly translated as “beautiful country?” Find out in this intriguing episode as founder and executive director of Code For America Jennifer Pahlka shares her vision for a government in the USA that works for everyone and harnesses the amazing new technologies in our world.

Today's Chinese word is “chicken.” ShaoLan quizzes Jennifer Pahlka about what it takes to rear her own free-range chickens and also teaches the bonus word for eggs, an extremely useful word to know if you're in China as so many dishes are cooked with eggs!

Founder and executive director of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka joins this podcast to learn the word for “code” or “coding” in Chinese. Her amazing initiative aims to harness the incredible advances in technology in the 21st Century and enable them to make the government work for a fairer society.

Jennifer Pahlka, the former Deputy CTO of the United States, founder of Code for America & author of “Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better” joins the show to discuss why governments at all levels produce poor quality online services in the United States, that become quickly antiquated & cost of fortune. We also talk about how industrial-era culture limits government's ability to handle the challenges of the 2020s, the gap between the promise of the digital age and actual results, and she shares lessons from her time addressing governmental failure at the local, state, and federal levels.

Millions of Americans depend on public assistance programs to help pay for food and make ends meet. But it's not always easy for them to manage the red tape required to keep those benefits coming. Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Bryce Covert joins this episode with the story of a nonprofit called Code For America. It works with states to make navigating government bureaucracies less of a hassle. And we also hear from Code For America's Genevieve Miller. Read more: How Many People Does It Take for the Government to Send a Text? Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Meghan Hellstern, Trainer and Facilitator with Think Digital, co-hosts with Ryan and reflects on her time at the 2023 Code for America Summit in Washington, D.C! In this episode, we hear about how digital transformation is as much about people, as it is technology. Big thanks to Hillary Hartley, Dorothy Eng, Ariel Kennan, Amanda Renteria, Karina Rider, Natalie Talis, and Luke Simcoe for taking time out of their busy conference to sit and reflect with Meghan.Related LinksCode for America SummitWatch the Episode on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/pCdCmpYAamY

In this episode, Marc and Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, discuss how important it is to attract and recruit diverse talent and how it ensures a wide range of perspectives are accounted for when tackling complex challenges like cybercrime. You'll also learn about: Amanda's life in the public sector working with two U.S. Senators, and her experience working on Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016. Code for America's mission and how the organization has grown over the past two and half years under Amanda's leadership. How cybercriminals often target underrepresented and vulnerable populations.

Why are the Chinese words for the USA directly translated as “beautiful country?” Find out in this intriguing episode as founder and executive director of Code For America Jennifer Pahlka shares her vision for a government in the USA that works for everyone and harnesses the amazing new technologies in our world.

Today's Chinese word is “chicken.” ShaoLan quizzes Jennifer Pahlka about what it takes to rear her own free-range chickens and also teaches the bonus word for eggs, an extremely useful word to know if you're in China as so many dishes are cooked with eggs!

Amanda Renteria, the CEO of Code for America, joined the Human Insight Podcast to talk about using technology AND regularly talking with your audience to reimagine government to better serve communities.  Amanda has worked in the financial sector, been a teacher in her hometown, and spent most of her career in the public sector, from serving as Chief of Operations at the California Department of Justice to being national political director for Hilary Clinton's 2016 US presidential campaign. And, oh yeah, she ran for the U.S. Congress and for California's state governor. Among the topics discussed include:  Simplifying tax filing Code for America's Safety Net Innovation Lab What is human-centered government  Amanda's thoughts on Hispanic Heritage Month following her recent appointment by President Biden to his Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics.

Founder and executive director of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka joins this podcast to learn the word for “code” or “coding” in Chinese. Her amazing initiative aims to harness the incredible advances in technology in the 21st Century and enable them to make the government work for a fairer society.

For many low-income individuals,  filing taxes may be a daunting task, and many may even choose to avoid interacting with the IRS altogether due to negative experiences. However, not filing taxes may mean missing out on crucial refunds and benefits..  From low-income taxpayer clinics in communities to organizations and initiatives such as https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers (VITA), https://www.getyourrefund.org/en (GetYourRefund) and https://codeforamerica.org/ (Code For America), there are a multitude of pro bono opportunities for tax attorneys to get involved in to ensure taxpayers receive the benefits they deserve. According to Jaclyn Roeing, an attorney at Skadden who volunteers with https://www.communitytaxaiddc.org/ (Community Tax Aid) in Washington, D.C., “One of the key benefits of pro bono work is the opportunity to give back to your community and to use the skills you develop as a lawyer for clients that would otherwise not have representation at all, and that you might never get to engage with.”  Don't miss this Spotlight Series episode of GILTI Conscience as we sit down with Jaclyn to discuss how engaging in pro bono work as a tax attorney benefits both communities and attorneys, and how you can get involved.  

In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, we are revisiting our Child Tax Credit series. We look at how organizations are using technology to make sure eligible families are receiving the credit. With more than 36 million additional children — a majority of whom are Black and Latino — now eligible and the credit being distributed as a monthly payment instead of an annual lump sum many changes were required to ensure success of the program.We spoke with Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, who launched the GetCTC.org portal to make it easier for families to claim their credit and Jimmy Chen, CEO of Propel, the organization behind the Providers app, which allows participants to manage a variety of government benefits, including the CTC, in one place about how they are helping to the credit reach all eligible families.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thursday, July 28th, 2022 Amanda Renteria the CEO of Code for America, an organization of people-centered problem solvers working to improve government in a meaningful way. We discuss making government work better for everyday people by design. Good governance starts with getting the basics right, such as delivering clean water to all communities. Making government simple and accessible is also key. Currently it's so complicated that many people have lost trust in the government's ability to respond to crises. Modernizing systems so that the government reaches folks where they are is an incredibly powerful tool to reimagining trust and rebuilding a government for, and by, us all. Follow Amanda on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmandaRenteria  Follow Mila on Twitter: https://twitter.com/milaatmos  Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod//a> Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey! http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard  Want to support the show and get it early? https://patreon.com/futurehindsight  Check out the Future Hindsight website! www.futurehindsight.com   Credits: Host: Mila Atmos  Guest: Amanda Renteria Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham

Why is it so hard to get government benefits? Annie Lowrey joins The Weeds hosts Dara Lind and Dylan Matthews to discuss her recent story for the Atlantic about a group called Code For America that is working to lessen this bureaucratic burden. Read Annie's story: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/07/how-government-learned-waste-your-time-tax/619568/ This episode of The Weeds was produced and engineered by Sofi LaLonde. Libby Nelson is the editorial advisor and Amber Hall is deputy editorial director of talk podcasts. Dara Lind and Dylan Matthews hosted. Support The Weeds and Recode Daily by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reform advocates are full of good intentions and worthy goals— from ending hunger to improving access to healthcare and limiting the impacts of climate change. But good intentions are not the same as good results. The efficient delivery of services is important for all citizens. In this episode, we look at how to design technology that makes the government smarter, much more efficient, and even friendlier.Amanda Renteria is CEO of Code for America, a non-profit group that uses coding and other forms of tech expertise to ensure the delivery of equitable digital tools and services. Amanda grew up in California's Central Valley, the daughter of Latino farm workers. She spent years in public service, as former National Political Director for Hillary Clinton, chief of staff for two Democratic Senators, and chief of operations for California's Attorney General. "Nearly $60 billion in government services go unclaimed each year by people who are eligible," says Amanda. "We often talk about technology in terms of making things faster and easier but the first thing is to treat people with dignity... We try to create a welcoming front door. "In our discussion, we go under the hood to examine Code for America's work to improve government delivery of services to those who need it most— from food, income, and housing assistance to help with filling out taxes or getting something as simple as a new driver's license. Recommendation: Both Richard and Jim enjoy games and puzzles, including Wordle and Guesstures. They're a lot of fun!Note:We are doing something special with our Patreon fundraising account, where we ask listeners for support. Until now we've been spending the money to expand our reach and gain more subscribers. But for the next 6 months, we're giving it to Ukraine relief efforts. The funds are going to charities such as Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. Please help us help people who need our money most. Here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join us for a conversation about the motivations and constraints involved with volunteering in civic tech! We're joined by [Jill Bjers](https://twitter.com/Jillzey), [Nehemiah Dacres](https://twitter.com/dacresni), [Marianne Miranda](https://twitter.com/mariannettePM), and [Matt Zagaja](https://twitter.com/mzagaja)} for a live show that happened during the 2021 Code for America Brigade Congress. Join us on [Discord](https://discord.gg/hECzBJh) ### Resources and Shoutouts: - [Volunteer personas doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dExHtVElMr4oCuWEXWzs8zCuxqj7OTggzyP_LXeJhQ0/edit#) ##### Music Credit: [Tumbleweeds by Monkey Warhol](http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monkey_Warhol/Lonely_Hearts_Challenge/Monkey_Warhol_-_Tumbleweeds)

Why are the Chinese words for the USA directly translated as “beautiful country?” Find out in this intriguing episode as founder and executive director of Code For America Jennifer Pahlka shares her vision for a government in the USA that works for everyone and harnesses the amazing new technologies in our world.

Today's Chinese word is “chicken.” ShaoLan quizzes Jennifer Pahlka about what it takes to rear her own free-range chickens and also teaches the bonus word for eggs, an extremely useful word to know if you're in China as so many dishes are cooked with eggs!

Founder and executive director of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka joins this podcast to learn the word for “code” or “coding” in Chinese. Her amazing initiative aims to harness the incredible advances in technology in the 21st Century and enable them to make the government work for a fairer society.

In this second episode of Add Passion and Stir's Child Tax Credit series, we look at how organizations are using technology to make sure eligible families are receiving the credit. With more than 36 million additional children — a majority of whom are Black and Latino — now eligible for the CTC and the credit being distributed as a monthly payment instead of an annual lump sum many changes were required to ensure success of the program. We spoke with Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, who launched the GetCTC.org portal to make it easier for families to claim their credit and Jimmy Chen, CEO of Propel, the organization behind the Providers app, which allows participants to manage a variety of government benefits, including the CTC, in one place about how they are helping to the credit reach all eligible families.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As many as 13 million children in the United States live in food insecure homes, meaning that these households don't have enough food for every family member to lead a healthy life. Hunger is a problem that most often affects children from low-income families. And today we're going to discuss the Child Tax Credit aimed at helping low-income families and the historic increases in the credit made through the American Rescue Plan in 2021. Our guest today is Billy Shore, the founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, a nonprofit working to solve problems of hunger and poverty, both in the United States and around the world. Share Our Strength is also the parent organization for the well-known No Kid Hungry campaign, the national policy, advocacy, outreach, and research effort to improve childhood nutrition, support school meals, and provide resources to schools, food banks, and community groups working to end hunger.   Interview Summary   So the child tax credit has been around for years, but this year there was some significant, albeit temporary, changes that made it a powerful tool in fighting poverty. Could you quickly walk our listeners through what these changes have been?   The most important change for The Child Tax Credit is that Congress and the Biden administration made it fully refundable - which is a way of saying that even if you don't earn enough money to pay taxes, you still get a check from the government somewhere between $3000.00 and $3360.00 per child. And one of the ironies of the Child Tax Credit in the past has been that many of the families who need it the most might be the least likely to get it if they weren't earning enough to pay taxes or file taxes. Now there's a portal that's been developed with the Internal Revenue Service and a nonprofit called Code for America that we worked very closely with, where even if you haven't earned any money, you can file for the Child Tax Credit. And you can use those funds for food, for education supplies, for healthcare, for really whatever you need it for, for your kids. It's estimated that it can bring 5 million children above the poverty line, which would really be absolutely transformational.   That's a remarkable impact this could have. So just out of curiosity, are there programs or means for letting people who might be eligible for this benefit know that it exists providing help in using the portal and doing things like that?   That's a great question because there's an all out effort beginning right now, not just to raise awareness of the Child Tax Credit, because a lot of families are not aware of this new benefit, but to also make it more accessible. Many families are going to need technical assistance as to how to access the portal called Get Child Tax Credit, getctc.org. And then when they're on the site, they might need assistance then as well. So there's a major effort. Think of this almost as like a political campaign. One of the things that Share Our Strength is doing right now as a pilot is building out a field operation in two states to see how this would go in Mississippi and in Maine. And we've got regional directors and field staff. And just as you would have a staff on the ground to register people to vote and to make sure they get to the polls, we've got a staff on the ground that is going to make sure people are aware of the tax credit. They get to their Community Centers or the sites or the volunteer tax assistance sites that they need to get to so that they could actually file. And then as we learn from those two pilots, we'll spread that into all 50 states.   Given that you and your organization are working to address food insecurity, why put efforts behind legislation that would address poverty rather than just food insecurity itself, providing more food for people or more benefits that provide food? Why work on poverty overall?   You know, one of the things that we've learned over the last 35 years of doing this work, and I would say, honestly, it took us too long to learn it, but we've really come to the conclusion that it takes more than food to fight hunger. And so, you know, we all have a reflex when we think about people being hungry, how do we get them food? And we think in terms of emergency food assistance and food banks and soup kitchens and programs like the school meals programs or the SNAP food stamp program, but to really end hunger in a sustainable way, it does take more than food to fight hunger.   Families have to have the financial stability. You know, when you think about hunger as a symptom of a set of deeper problems, in some ways it's a problem in and of itself, but in many ways it's a symptom of deeper problems of poverty and inequity, racism. When you think about all the reasons that families are struggling today, you realize that we've got to do more than just provide food. And so the Child Tax Credit is the first and the largest opportunity that's come along, probably in a generation or more, to really give families the unrestricted resources they need. And one of the things that we've learned just from the July tax credit payments, so just as recently as a few months ago, we found out that 47% of the families who received the tax credit used it to buy food for their families. So we know that the impact is direct. Other families, of course, used it for some of the other things I mentioned, educational supplies, healthcare, that type of thing. But food is going to be one of the biggest allocations that the child tax credit receives.   That makes perfect sense. You mentioned just how many families could be affected by this. Families now living in poverty who would have some benefit from this program. And you've also talked about the issue of how the child tax credit could be important in building equity. Could you speak to that?   As you know, disproportionate numbers of black and Hispanic and Asian American Pacific Islander, indigenous children, experience hunger and the Child Tax Credit has a direct impact. It also has a disproportionate impact, in a positive way, on them. So it would cut poverty by 52% for black children, by 45% for Hispanic children, by 62% for indigenous children. There are of course, a lot of white families, the majority of families who received the Child Tax Credit are likely to be white and many will receive it automatically if they've been filing taxes. But again, often the families that need it the most are going to be the hardest to reach. So we think it'll have a powerful impact in establishing some equity in a sustainable basis, particularly for black and brown kids.   So you mentioned that many families will receive the Child Tax Credit automatically, but there will be several million families who qualify for the tax credit, but may not be signed up. What can they do?   There's a new portal that's been created. It's in English and Spanish. As I mentioned, it's been created by a terrific nonprofit called Code For America. And if you go to http://www.getctc.org or we have a direct portal, http://nokidhungry.org/getctc. CTC  stands for Child Tax Credit. You immediately get to a portal where you could follow the information and get a check sent to you or deposited. So it's really going to take a massive effort to make this happen.   The current law has this Child Tax Credit in place until the end of this year, until December of 2021. Congress is now debating whether to extend it or to make it permanent. I think most practically, politically, it's probably not going to be made permanent as much as we'd like to see that. It'll probably get extended for three to five years. And it will take that amount of time to make sure that all the families that need it become aware of it and get the assistance they need. So we've got to have a long-term view of this, but you know, you and I are having this conversation in mid-September, and there was a headline today in The New York Times. Just to give you a sense of how important something like this can be, front page of The New York Times and many other papers was that as a result of the assistance programs of the last nine months, including the stimulus payments and so forth, 8.5 million Americans were lifted out of poverty. And that's just remarkable. The poverty rate went from 11.8% to 9.1%. The lowest it's been since they've been measuring poverty in this country. So it's just a great proof point that these programs work. That the social safety net, when it's resourced, when it's applied the way it's supposed to be and maintained the way it's supposed to be, the social safety net really has the intended impact. It lifts people out of poverty and that's good for the economy and it's good for all of us.   Thank goodness the program is working like it is and thank goodness people are paying attention. And the article you mentioned is one way to make that more visible. So let's follow up on this last issue you raised, that this is put in place temporarily, and it's only in effect through December. Obviously, it would be great if this were to continue, what do you think needs to happen to make sure that it continues? And what sort of political actions might take place or data could be collected or other things that could be influential in seeing that this continues?   I think the most important thing is going to be for Congress to hear from Americans, that they want this Child Tax Credit to continue. That they're seeing the impact of it in their own families, in their own communities that they want to live in a country that lifts kids out of poverty. We tend not to be as good at that as other industrialized nations. And, you know, Congress of course, is so evenly divided right now. The Senate completely evenly divided. The House, I think speaker Pelosi, can only afford to lose three democratic votes to get this passed. So this is one of those cases where literally every voice counts and letting your member of Congress know that this Child Tax Credit is going to be important in your community is absolutely vital. You know, when people hear about tax credits, sometimes your eyes kind of glaze over. People don't really know a lot about the tax system or necessarily want to be involved with the Internal Revenue Service, with the IRS, and I get that. But this is one of the big positives to come out of it. And if it does become extended, I think it puts it on a path to permanence and imagine being the first generation of Americans to live in a country where we don't have child poverty at record levels. That would be just an incredible legacy for our entire generation.   Bio   Billy Shore is the founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, the parent organization for the No Kid Hungry campaign. Since founding Share Our Strength in 1984 with his sister Debbie, Billy has led the organization in raising more than $700 million to fight hunger and poverty and has won the support of national leaders in business, government, health, and education, sports and entertainment. Billy is also the chair of Community Wealth Partners, Share Our Strength's for-profit consulting firm which provides strategic consulting to help leaders and communities solve social problems. Before founding Share Our Strength, Billy served on the senatorial and presidential campaign staffs for former U.S. Senator Gary Hart and as chief of staff to former U.S. Senator Robert Kerrey. In 2014, congressional leaders appointed him to the National Commission on Hunger, tasked with finding innovative ways to end hunger in America. He is the author of four books focused on social change, including “Revolution of the Heart” (Riverhead Press, 1995), “The Cathedral Within” (Random House, 1999), “The Light of Conscience” (Random House, 2004) and most recently, “The Imaginations of Unreasonable Men” (Public Affairs, 2010). He also hosts Add Passion and Stir, a weekly podcast that brings together high-profile chefs and change-makers to talk about the central role food plays in social justice.  

Amanda Renteria is the Chief Executive Officer at Code for America, which is a network of people making government work for the people, by the people, in the digital age. She is also the former Chief of Operations at the California Department of Justice, former Chief of Staff in the United States Senate. And a National Political Director for a large U.S. presidential campaign. But, perhaps most importantly, it is Amanda's second time on Stories from the Open Gov, which I suppose makes her an official friend of the podcast! And today, we talk a little about the effect of COVID19 on civic tech and the upcoming Code For America Summit taking place on May 12-13 https://summit.codeforamerica.org/ Time stamps: 1:29 - Asking how Amanda's new role as CfA CEO is coming. 5:01 - How was it organizing the first virtual CfA Summit? 12:34 - How did the CfA team choose which proposals for breakout sessions made it to the final program? 16:37 - Amanda talks about using Hopin as their virtual platform for the summit. 20:57 - What are some sessions at the CfA Summit Amanda is most excited about? 22:30 - What's next for the CfA after the Summit? Amanda Renteria Twitter account twitter.com/AmandaRenteria Code for America twitter.com/CodeforAmerica Richard Pietro Twitter account twitter.com/richardpietro Re: Open Gov Twitter account twitter.com/re_open_gov ABOUT Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like. Your host is Richard Pietro, an Open Government & Open Data practitioner for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality! MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

A nonprofit called Code For America seeks to improve government services through improved digital services. It's been at it since 2011. Here with the organization's latest priorities now that the Biden administration has taken over, Code For America's CEO Amanda Renteria.

In the tech world, we’ve seen time and time again how customer experience can make or break a business. But when it comes to the government, is there such a thing as the citizen experience? Intercom's Sarah Tran chats to Code for America CEO Amanda Renteria.

Why are the Chinese words for the USA directly translated as “beautiful country?” Find out in this intriguing episode as founder and executive director of Code For America Jennifer Pahlka shares her vision for a government in the USA that works for everyone and harnesses the amazing new technologies in our world. Read extended show notes for this episode here: https://www.chineasy.com/talk/lessons/304-usa/ Explore various topics, special guests, and expansive list of useful Chinese phrases on Talk Chineasy website! goo.gl/VJ8plT Want to practice the pronunciation of words taught in this episode? Have fun learning with activity sheets, recap video, coloring book, and more. Become a Golden Chineasian to enjoy exclusive premium content! goo.gl/vjbtL9

Today's Chinese word is “chicken.” ShaoLan quizzes Jennifer Pahlka about what it takes to rear her own free-range chickens and also teaches the bonus word for eggs, an extremely useful word to know if you're in China as so many dishes are cooked with eggs! Read extended show notes for this episode here: https://www.chineasy.com/talk/lessons/300-chicken/ Explore various topics, special guests, and expansive list of useful Chinese phrases on Talk Chineasy website! goo.gl/VJ8plT Want to practice the pronunciation of words taught in this episode? Have fun learning with activity sheets, recap video, coloring book, and more. Become a Golden Chineasian to enjoy exclusive premium content! goo.gl/vjbtL9

The former political aide says growing up in agricultural California deeply shaped her identity, especially as a Latina in powerful roles, including chief of staff in the U.S. Senate. Amanda offers candid moments from running for, and losing public office, twice. And why those experiences crystallized her mission to fight for the rest of us.Follow Amanda Renteria on Twitter @AmandaRenteria. If you loved this episode, listen to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Is Not Done Fighting and Why Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Leads from the Heart. Show your love and become a Latina to Latina Patreon supporter!

Founder and executive director of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka joins this podcast to learn the word for “code” or “coding” in Chinese. Her amazing initiative aims to harness the incredible advances in technology in the 21st Century and enable them to make the government work for a fairer society. Read extended show notes for this episode here: https://www.chineasy.com/talk/lessons/ Explore various topics, special guests, and expansive list of useful Chinese phrases on Talk Chineasy website! goo.gl/VJ8plT Want to practice the pronunciation of words taught in this episode? Have fun learning with activity sheets, recap video, coloring book, and more. Become a Golden Chineasian to enjoy exclusive premium content! goo.gl/vjbtL9

Amanda Renteria is the former Chief of Operations at the California Department of Justice, former Chief of Staff in the United States Senate. And a National Political Director for a large U.S. presidential campaign. And, back in May of 2020, she became the new Chief Executive Officer at Code for America, which is a network of people making government work for the people, by the people, in the digital age. But, her roots are as a teacher in her small hometown. And today she will tell us about how we can teach governments new ways on how to govern. Time stamps: 1:34 – Characterizing the relationship between members of the bureaucracy and elected officials. 5:12 – Talking about closing the feedback loops in government 7:35 – Amanda tells us the most important government processes that need to change. 10:50 – Amanda's thoughts on how to rebuild trust between the government and public. 11:53 – Hackathons: Overused gimmicks or valuable exercises? 16:53 – How can we make Civic Tech projects sustainable? 18:58 – How can we bring more eyeballs to the Open Gov, Open Data, and Civic Tech movements? 25:20 – Teaching the media's and public's that government needs to experiment. 28:08 – Code For America's involvement in the Pandemic recovery phase. 32:26 – If Code For America was granted 3 wishes, what would it wish for? 38:51 – Amanda's thoughts on social injustice. Amanda Renteria Twitter account twitter.com/AmandaRenteria Code for America twitter.com/CodeforAmerica Richard Pietro Twitter account twitter.com/richardpietro Re: Open Gov Twitter account twitter.com/re_open_gov ABOUT Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like. Your host is Richard Pietro, an Open Government & Open Data practitioner for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality! MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Reimagining government. Amanda Renteria, the CEO of Code for America, joined the podcast to talk about using technology to serve communities and use technology for good. She discussed how Code for America wants to encourage a delivery driven government that starts with people it serves. She also shared her career path in public service and example projects completed by Code for America brigades. Host: Javon Davis

We sit down with [Amanda Renteria](https://twitter.com/AmandaRenteria), the CEO of [Code for America](https://codeforamerica.org), an organization that seeks to improve the delivery of government services, whether through its programs or its nationwide volunteer network. We'll talk about the organization, their vision for it, a bit of public policy, and even how the organization is trying to weather the times we are living in. ### Resources and Shoutouts: - [Scientific American Mind](https://www.scientificamerican.com/mind-and-brain/) - [The Future is Faster than You Think](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52290273-the-future-is-faster-than-you-think) ##### Music Credit: [Tumbleweeds by Monkey Warhol](http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monkey_Warhol/Lonely_Hearts_Challenge/Monkey_Warhol_-_Tumbleweeds)

In the US, local governments are leading the response to COVID-19 – making decisions and gathering data at a speed and scale never before seen. And many of them are asking Jen Pahlka for help. The founder and past chair of Code for America, she co-founded U.S. Digital Response, a nonpartisan group that matches experts with local governments to work on tech, comms and operations. She shares what she's seeing right now – and paints a bold, big-picture vision of what a modern government could do in the years to come.

In the US, local governments are leading the response to COVID-19 – making decisions and gathering data at a speed and scale never before seen. And many of them are asking Jen Pahlka for help. The founder and past chair of Code for America, she co-founded U.S. Digital Response, a nonpartisan group that matches experts with local governments to work on tech, comms and operations. She shares what she's seeing right now – and paints a bold, big-picture vision of what a modern government could do in the years to come.

While private sector companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc. draw closer to perfected digital states, the public sector (government agencies and organizations) are woefully behind in their pursuit of digital transformation. In bringing together developers, civic techies, and government officials, Code for America is hoping to change that by inspiring developers and other citizens into fulfilling their civic duty. In this podcast, ProgrammableWeb editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Code for America founder Jen Pahlka to learn more about the Code for America Summit. (Editor's Note: While the Code for America Summit in Wash, DC has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization is currently exploring its virtual event options) To get a full-text transcript of this presentation, go to: https://www.programmableweb.com/news/post-corona-code-america-looks-to-join-devs-civic-techies-and-gov-officials-to-transform-govops/interview/2020/03/06

Alia Toran-Burrell walks us through how the Code For America app, “Clear My Record,” went from connecting people with criminal records to attorneys to replacing attorneys altogether. We learn about the sobering reality of criminal record clearance in America, and the incredible ways tech is stepping in to fix the problem.   For more information on how to dismiss or reduce a criminal record, visit https://www.clearmyrecord.org/. 

Why are the Chinese words for the USA directly translated as “beautiful country?” Find out in this intriguing episode as founder and executive director of Code For America Jennifer Pahlka shares her vision for a government in the USA that works for everyone and harnesses the amazing new technologies in our world. Read extended show notes for this episode here: https://www.chineasy.com/talk/lessons/304-usa/ Explore various topics, special guests, and expansive list of useful Chinese phrases on Talk Chineasy website! goo.gl/VJ8plT Want to practice the pronunciation of words taught in this episode? Have fun learning with activity sheets, recap video, coloring book, and more. Become a Golden Chineasian to enjoy exclusive premium content! goo.gl/vjbtL9

Today's Chinese word is “chicken.” ShaoLan quizzes Jennifer Pahlka about what it takes to rear her own free-range chickens and also teaches the bonus word for eggs, an extremely useful word to know if you're in China as so many dishes are cooked with eggs! Read extended show notes for this episode here: https://www.chineasy.com/talk/lessons/300-chicken/ Explore various topics, special guests, and expansive list of useful Chinese phrases on Talk Chineasy website! goo.gl/VJ8plT Want to practice the pronunciation of words taught in this episode? Have fun learning with activity sheets, recap video, coloring book, and more. Become a Golden Chineasian to enjoy exclusive premium content! goo.gl/vjbtL9

Josh interviews Evonne Silva of Code for America You can find full show notes for episode 68 on our website http://decarcerationnation.com/

Founder and executive director of Code For America, Jennifer Pahlka joins this podcast to learn the word for “code” or “coding” in Chinese. Her amazing initiative aims to harness the incredible advances in technology in the 21st Century and enable them to make the government work for a fairer society. Read extended show notes for this episode here: https://www.chineasy.com/talk/lessons/ Explore various topics, special guests, and expansive list of useful Chinese phrases on Talk Chineasy website! goo.gl/VJ8plT Want to practice the pronunciation of words taught in this episode? Have fun learning with activity sheets, recap video, coloring book, and more. Become a Golden Chineasian to enjoy exclusive premium content! goo.gl/vjbtL9

Tens of thousands of people in Cook County have a hard time getting a job, finding housing, or moving on to become productive citizens after a conviction for a marijuana-related offense. But when weed becomes legal in Illinois on January 1, many of those convictions will be expunged. This will break down some of the barriers so that these people can better provide for themselves and their families. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx talks about the work that her office is doing in tandem with San Francisco-based Code For America to make these expungements happen.Plus WBEZ education reporter Sarah Karp answers some of the questions we couldn’t get to with CPS CEO Janice Jackson yesterday.

Designing better government. Earlier this summer GovLove hosted a live recording at the Code for America Summit in Oakland, California. Three guests joined to talk about trends in local government and how they interact with data and technology in their organization. Warren Logan is the Policy Director of Mobility & Interagency Relations in Oakland, CA; Laura Biediger is a Community Engagement Strategist in Durham, NC; and Stephanie Chase is the Director of Libraries for Hillsboro, OR.  Host: Kirsten Wyatt

Social media is under fire for how it threatens our society, our politics, even our mental health.Facebook, Google, Twitter and other tech giants are criticized for spying on us and using secret algorithms to push us toward extreme views.Civic Hall is a key player in a growing movement to use technology to better the world-- what people are calling "civic tech".Our guest, Micah Sifry, co-founder and President of Civic Hall, is a longtime advocate for transparency, better government, and using tech for social change. "The problems that we face as a society are not going to be solved by tech alone," he says. Most of the problem-solving work that we see and support at Civic Hall is, at most, 20% tech and 80% social." In this episode we highlight the work of several groups, including Code For America, which is on a mission to make government work in the digital age, and Ushahidi, an organization that builds tools to solve the world's biggest humanitarian and international development challenges. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When it comes to technology, the United States government has a reputation for lagging behind the private sector. But in a time when technology runs our lives, the real question is whether the government can use it to be more transparent and connected to the public. First, we hear from Anna Piperal about e-Estonia, the most advanced digital society in the world. Then host Claire L. Evans talks with Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code For America, on how the government can better harness technology to serve a tech-hungry population.

Designing better government. Dan Hon, the Co-Chair for the 2019 Code for America Summit, joined the podcast to talk about the work of Code for America, how he got involved and why technologists should work with governments. Dan also shared some of the agenda they are planning for the conference and tips for attendees. 

Welcome to our first episode of Cannabis in the News! You'll hear all about the latest goings-on of the cannabis industry and how it affects each and every one of us.This time around, we talk about San Francisco District Attorney, George Gascón and his recent announcement that his office will wipe out over 9,000 cannabis-related convictions dating back to 1975. He teamed up with Code for America, a non-profit dedicated to improving the government using open-source technology, to identify cases eligible for expungement or resentencing under Prop. 64. They plan to complete a full sweep of all eligible cases within the next year.Articles used for research:San Francisco ChronicleThe HillMarijuana MomentMediumProp 64 OverviewProp 64 TextCode for AmericaFor more Cannabis in the News episodes, be sure to subscribe today! Moving forward, new episodes will be published the first Friday of the month.Seed to Sound presented by Vangst. A podcast for cannabis professionals. Produced by Catherine DeMuro and Hannah Holmgren. Music by Tyson Weigel. For more information, visit the Vangst blog.Have an story you'd like us to cover? Questions, comments, concerns? Connect with Vangst on Twitter!The views expressed in this episode are solely that of Catherine DeMuro and Hannah Holmgren and do not represent the views or opinions of Vangst, its candidates, or its clients.Support the show (https://vangst.com/)

Lots of people have tried to sum up the differences between Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. — but it isn't so easy to hone in on. Nevertheless, it's clear that at least some aspects of the west-coast tech approach could benefit a government that all-too-often appears incapable of accomplishing anything much. This week, we're joined by former US Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Code For America founder Jennifer Pahlka to discuss what the Hill can learn from the Valley.

Our society is in the midst of an extremely urgent conversation about the benefits and harms of digital technology, across all spheres of life. Unfortunately, this conversation too often fails to include the voices of technology practitioners whose work is already focused on social justice, the common good, and/or the public interest. This talk by Sasha Costanza-Chock explores key findings and recommendations from #MoreThanCode (morethancode.cc), a recently-released field scan based on more than 100 practitioner interviews. * The report was produced by the Tech for Social Justice Project (t4sj.co), co-led by Research Action Design (RAD) and the Open Technology Institute at New America (OTI), together with research partners Upturn, Media Mobilizing Project, Coworker.org, Hack the Hood, May First/People Link, Palante Technology Cooperative, Vulpine Blue, and The Engine Room. NetGain, the Ford Foundation, Mozilla, Code For America, and OTI funded and advised the project. Sasha Costanza-Chock (pronouns: they/them or she/her) is a scholar, activist, and media-maker, and currently Associate Professor of Civic Media at MIT. Their work focuses on social movements, transformative media organizing, and design justice. Sasha’s first book, Out of the Shadows, Into the Streets: Transmedia Organizing and the Immigrant Rights Movement was published by the MIT Press in 2014. More info: schock.cc.

In this podcast, Maksim, CDO @ City of San Diago, discussed the nuances of running big data for big cities. He shares his perspectives on effectively building a central data office in a complex and extremely collaborative environment like a big city. He shared his thoughts on some ways to effectively prioritize which project to pursue. He shared how leadership and execution could blend to solve civic issues relating to big and small cities. A great practitioner podcast for folks seeking to build a robust data science practice across a large and collaborative ecosystem. Timeline: 0:28 Maksim's journey. 6:45 Maksim's current role. 11:46 Collaboration process in creating a data inventory. 14:52 Working with the bureaucracy. 18:35 Dealing with unforeseen circumstances at work. 20:22 Prioritization at work. 22:58 Qualities of a good data leader. 26:15 Collaboration with other cities. 27:40 Cool data projects in other cities. 30:55 Shortcomings of other city representatives. 36:54 Use cases in AI 39:00 What would Maksim change about himself? 40:50 Future cities and data 43:55 Opportunities for private investors in the public sector. 45:53 Maksim's success mantra. 50:19 Closing remark. Maksim's Book Recommendation: The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford amzn.to/2MAu5Xv Podcast Link: https://futureofdata.org/understanding-bigdata-for-bigcities-with-maksim-mrmaksimize-cityofsandiego-futureofdata-podcast/ Maksim's BIO: Maksim Pecherskiy: As the CDO for the City of San Diego, working in the Performance & Analytics Department, Maksim strives to bring the necessary components together to allow the City's residents to benefit from a more efficient, agile government that is as innovative as the community around it. He has been solving complex problems with technology for nearly a decade. He spent 2014 working as a Code For America fellow in Puerto Rico, focusing on economic development. His team delivered a product called PrimerPeso that provides business owners and residents a tool to search, and apply for, government programs for which they may be eligible. Before moving to California, Maksim was a Solutions Architect at Promet Source in Chicago, where he built large web applications and designed complex integrations. He shaped workflow, configuration management, and continuous integration processes while leading and training international development teams. Before his work at Promet, he was a software engineer at AllPlayers, who was instrumental in the design and architecture of its APIs and the development and documentation of supporting client libraries in various languages. Maksim graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor of science degree in information systems and from Linköping University, Sweden, with a bachelor of science degree in international business. He is also certified as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. About #Podcast: #FutureOfData podcast is a conversation starter to bring leaders, influencers and lead practitioners to come on show and discuss their journey in creating the data driven future. Wanna Join? If you or any you know wants to join in, Register your interest by mailing us @ info@analyticsweek.com Want to sponsor? Email us @ info@analyticsweek.com Keywords: FutureOfData, DataAnalytics, Leadership, Futurist, Podcast, BigData, Strategy

Get Him Out - SWEVENS; Theory - It's The Current; Hate To Say - BOWERS, Brotherhood - Slam Caesar, Gone - Asyst; Geeknotes: 08-11 - National Day of Civic Hacking, Code for America, SF, 08-15 - Solving the Black Maternal Heath Crisis, Ancient Light Studio BK, Brooklyn, 08-15 - Remaking Rent Control, Impact Hub San Francisco; Practice - Moving On To Benitez; Truth & Lies - OUT OF PLUMB

Meet Maksim Pecherskiy, Chief Data Officer for the City of San Diego!   Maksim has been Chief Data Officer for over 3 years in accordance with the SD Open Data Policy in which he and his team are tasked with pushing city data out to the public to be built on top of. Maksim was born in the Ukraine and has been programming since he was 7 years old. His dad got him into computers and he continued playing in the cybersecurity space and web development arena for both startups and enterprise-size companies. At some point, he had a feeling that he could help the world in a better way and so he joined Code For America. This took him to Puerto Rico, which he loved and got to help build a search engine to help Puerto Rican citizens find the help they needed from specific government agencies. While back in SF afterwards, randomly he found the Chief Data Officer on a job posting and applied! The rest is history. The data team of the City automatically releases and uploads to https://data.sandiego.gov/. They also work with organizations like SCALE SD and SDXD to help inform the community on what is available and hear what are the needs of the community from a data perspective. Maksim and his team are involved in the SmartCities initiative throughout San Diego, including sensors in streetlights and other devices, being a custodian of the data captured, and create APIs. Recruiting talent for roles in the government makes Maksim get creative. Afterall, not  all software jobs require the company to offer sleeping pods. Like most of San Diegans, Maksim love tacos: Favorite Tacos - City Tacos & Humbertos Favorite Local Distillery - Malahat Rum Favorite Coffee - Krakatoa   You can get in touch with Maksim on Twitter @MrMaksimize Or at data@sandiego.gov

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Jonathan Ende, CEO of SeamlessDocs.com, a cloud-based e-signature platform that helps governments move all their forms online. The Company recently raised a $7.5 million Series C round of venture funding in a deal led by SJF Ventures. Motorola Solutions, Entrepreneur Roundtable Accelerator (ERA), NY State Innovation Ventures, CapRock, Govtech Fund, 1776 and others participated. Previously the Company raised from Kernel Capital, OnGrid Ventures, SoundBoard Angel Fund, Urban.Us, Harvard Business School Angels and New York Angels, Code For America, K Street Capital, RosePaul Ventures, Govtech Fund and others. in this episode, Jonathan talks about the criticality of focus and persistence, the rise of "GovTech" as an investing category, key questions to ask investors to gauge interest level, understanding the investor's decision making process, and much more.

Jennifer Pahlka was a founder of U.S. Digital Service, the Obama-era organization devoted to helping federal agencies modernize their information technology. She's preached the gospel of agile development, and chided federal contractors for not getting with the agile program faster. Now Pahlka has widened her scope with a project called Code For America. She joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin now with a look at federal IT.

Code for DC is a Code for America Brigade located here in Washington, DC. Founded in 2012, we are a a non-partisan, non-political group of volunteer civic hackers working together to solve local issues and help people engage with the city. We host twice-monthly hacknights and other events to gather, discuss, and get stuff done. We're looking to bring people with all different skill sets together to maximize our potential. Civic hackers aren't just developers—they're journalists, lawyers, designers, and interested citizens in general. The more community participation, the better. The DC Abortion Fund is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit that makes grants to pregnant people in the DC area, as well as those traveling to the area, who cannot afford the full cost of an abortion. They have been collaborating with Code for DC to get their intake system out of Excel and into a Rails app. Find them at www.dcabortionfund.org or on Twitter at @DCAbortionFund

Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the organization she started. Code for America works with private sector tech people to bring technology to the provision of government services. Pahlka discusses some of the success Code for America has had with improving government and the challenges of citizenship and technology in the 21st century.

Code for America product lead Alan Williams shares the great work he and his team are doing with Code for America, a non-profit organization dedicated to bring government into the 21st century government. He discusses mobile-first government programs like food stamps. If you’re intrigued and would like to get involved, this will get you over the edge.

This is session 6 of Technology-enabled Blitzscaling, a Stanford University class taught by Reid Hoffman, John Lilly, Allen Blue, and Chris Yeh. This class features John Lilly interviewing Jennifer Pahlka, the Founder and Executive Director of Code for America, and Co-founder of the United States Digital Service.

We speak to Grayson Wright about building Administrate, an open source Rails framework for administrative interfaces. What makes Administrate different than existing solutions and what are the challenges in maintaining high-level dependencies. Announcing Administrate Administrate on GitHub Administrate Demo Bourbon and Neat Responsive tables Spree Keep A Changelog Clearance's NEWS file Code For America Grayson on Twitter

Panel Discussion on The Politics of Procurement   This week's guest audio comes from a panel discussion moderated by Code for America. They create open source solutions and facilitate a collaborative community around their use. Code for America also hosts an annual summit that brings together public sector innovators and the organizations that collaborate with them – and that is where this particular recording was made: at a 2014 summit panel on public sector procurement.  In this exchange, the panel responds to an audience question about the politics of procurement and facilitating cross-functional communication for the sake of gaining buy in. The full video – Procurement for the 21st Century - is available on their YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vPf6cUb614

Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America, explains how governments, from the federal level to the local, need individuals with the skills to harness technology and design principles to make the everyday user's experience simpler and more elegant. Formerly the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House, Pahlka also discusses the hunger within government for "creative hacks" that improve their platforms.

Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America, explains how governments, from the federal level to the local, need individuals with the skills to harness technology and design principles to make the everyday user's experience simpler and more elegant. Formerly the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House, Pahlka also discusses the hunger within government for "creative hacks" that improve their platforms.

Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America, explains how governments, from the federal level to the local, need individuals with the skills to harness technology and design principles to make the everyday user's experience simpler and more elegant. Recently the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House, Pahlka also discusses the hunger within government for "creative hacks" that improve their platforms.

Sure, the page is dead, but now what? If you're Code for America, you work with Clearleft to develop a pattern library and a component-based CMS built in Jekyll to deliver a new responsive website. Cyd Harrell and Jeremy Keith tell us about their fast-paced, iterative process. Read more »

Anna Debenham on Code For America, starting a web career at age 14, checking websites in game console browsers, producing 24 Ways, what comes after winning young developer of the year, and the delights of Spotted Dick and Victoria Sponge. Anna is the author of Front-end Style Guides, creator of the Game Console Browsers website for developers, co-producer of 24 Ways, technical editor for A List Apart, and was Netmag's Young Developer of the Year 2013.

Anna Debenham on Code For America, starting a web career at age 14, checking websites in game console browsers, producing 24 Ways, what comes after winning young developer of the year, and the delights of Spotted Dick and Victoria Sponge. Anna is the author of Front-end Style Guides, creator of the Game Console Browsers website for developers, co-producer of 24 Ways, technical editor for A List Apart, and was Netmag’s Young Developer of the Year 2013.

This week Code for America fellow Lou Huang joins us to talk about the organization and their popular application, Streetmix. You can contact Lou through his website LouHuang.com.

Jade Meskill, Derek Neighbors, Nicole Neditch, and Luke Norris discuss Code For America. Transcript Jade Meskill:  Hello. Welcome to another episode of the “Dangercast.” We’ll talk about the culture and [ ... ]

Adam Stacoviak and Andrew Thorp talk with Michal Migurski (CTO) and Ezra Spier (Fellow) about civic hacking at Code for America, technical sustainability in government, skill gap for more modern software in government, open city data and more.

Adam Stacoviak and Andrew Thorp talk with Michal Migurski (CTO) and Ezra Spier (Fellow) about civic hacking at Code for America, technical sustainability in government, skill gap for more modern software in government, open city data and more.

Adam and Wynn caught up with Erik and Max, Fellows at Code for America to talk about civic-focused development and open source.

Adam and Wynn caught up with Erik and Max, Fellows at Code for America to talk about civic-focused development and open source.